Daily Times

The persistent hue and cry from the people of the three smaller provinces in Pakistan is ignored once again. Banking on the authority extended by the 18th amendment of the constitution to the provinces for initiation of power generation projects, the Lahore High Court, to the surprise of many, ordered the construction of the ‘ill-fated’ Kalabagh Dam.

The issue of the Kalabagh Dam originated in the early 1950s and at that time Dr Mohammad Nasir Gazdar, the Secretary General of the Environmental Society stated in his report named “An Assessment of the Kalabagh Dam Project on River Indus” that due to high level of risk the project of building a dam is rejected even by the American experts. An article by N Leroy Poff named as “Promising a rose garden but delivering dust” was published in 1990 that voiced the same concern. This reminds one of the story that once the Nawab of Kalabagh invited Justice (Retd) Mr Kayani saying, “Come and I will show you Kalabagh.” The Justice ironically replied “People show their guests Sabz Bagh (green gardens) while Nawab Sahib wants to take me to Kala Bagh (black garden).”

In 1992, the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore compiled a report named as “Media Coverage of Environmental Problems in Pakistan.” The report mostly condemned the role of print and electronic media in Pakistan in coverage of the environmental issues in Pakistan and also pointed towards an almost absence of environmental journalism in Pakistan; however, on page four of the report a special mention of Kalabagh Dam was given. The report states: “Kalabagh Dam is sure to be affected by these problems (like environmental, political, inter-provincial harmony, etc) and if a cost-benefit exercise is done keeping the long-term hazards of the dam building, it is sure to become more of a liability than an asset.”

A number of international reports are available that denounces the design errors in the Kalabagh Dam. The issues that are raised include the issue that the nearby Salt Range will create problems. It will make the waters saline and that could damage the lands that are irrigated from the dam. Secondly, it is also reported that as the tectonic plates in the area are quite active, causing the Himalayan Mountains to rise a few millimetres every year, the phenomenon is bound to create instability in the area to a substantial degree. It has also been observed that large dams induce earthquakes. An online report by Iftikhar Ahmad named “Kalabagh Dam — Development or Disaster?” states: “The construction of the Kalabagh Dam at the proposed location is to play with the dangerous consequences of earthquakes, and putting the life of downstream inhabitants at stake.”

Coming from technical issues to the localised issues related to the building of the Kalabagh Dam, one of the biggest issues is the distribution of water. Punjab as a word means ‘Land of Five Waters (Rivers)” and the issue started when through the notorious Indus Water Treaty, three rivers of Punjab were sold to India. Ahmad Shah Pitras Bukhari, a famous Urdu writer and satirist wrote in his essay named, “Lahore Ka Jughrafia (Geography of Lahore)” that after the Indus Water treaty we shall start calling Punjab as ‘Dhai Aab’ or ‘Land with Two-and-a-Half Waters”.

After the Indus Water Treaty Punjab saw an acute shortage of waters while during the dark days of ‘One Unit’ and even later there are a number of incidences where Punjab diverted or indeed stole the waters of other provinces. To resolve the issue, numerous commissions were appointed and among them the reports from Justice Akhtar Hussain and Justice Fazl-e-Akbar got the limelight; however, the reports never saw any implementation since Punjab had some other plans. A project, on ad-hoc basis, started by the name Canal Scheme to make a greener Pakistan (read as a greener Punjab), would certainly have turned many green lands of Sindh as barren. This infuriated the people of Sindh.

As per the views of some commentators, ten-million-acre-feet water shall be allowed to go into the Arabian Sea if the districts of Thatta and Khotri are to be saved from the rise of the oceans. In addition, Pakistan has mangrove forestation and the unique Blind Dolphins habitat that need to be saved from extinction. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has a claim over 30,000 cusecs water from the Indus. At the Khairabad (Attock) area, 21,000 cusecs water is contributed to the Indus from the Kabul River. KP, in return, was allowed to be given only 10,762 cusecs water to irrigate the barren lands in its southern districts like Dera Ismail Khan, etc, while in actual practice the federal government has always scammed to give only 1,800 cusecs water from the Chashma Right Bank Canal. It means that one-sixteenth of the promised privilege is given to the province. If the promise is fulfilled correctly, over a million acres of land of the southern districts in KP can be irrigated. Barrages have only been built in history to benefit Punjab.

The province of Balochistan does not touch on the Indus River directly; however, the Pat Feeder Canal from Guddu Barrage irrigates almost 300,000 acres of land of Balochistan. The province is requesting the federal government to remodel the canal, which will help in irrigating a further 200,000 acres of land in the deprived province. The people of Balochistan are thus against the building of the Kalabagh Dam, as they fear a further reduction in their share of irrigation water, which is already quite low.

KP has the basic issue that masses of fertile lands in Mardan, Nowshehra and Swabi districts will be inundated, causing large human displacement as well. Furthermore, the water table will rise in the longer term and convert rich lands into swamps and, more importantly, higher vulnerability of the population in case of flooding. We have already seen an example of disaster from the flooding in the recent past; just imagine if the water was blocked by the dam at Kalabagh, what would have been the level of destruction in Nowshera and the nearby districts?

Moreover, the logical issue of building a dam is that due to the creation of water reservoirs there are always short-term vulnerabilities. In order to benefit from the electricity and water management, each province shall identify a project that should have the reservoirs placed within the province. The Kalabagh Dam is a project where the vulnerable from the reservoir will only be people from KP, while the electricity generated will benefit Punjab. In addition, Sindh and Balochistan will lose water while Punjab will benefit. In response to the building of the Kalabagh Dam, one can only remember the famous character in one of the sitcoms on TV, who iterates, “Khush raho, apnay kharchay par” (Be happy, at your own expense).

Moreover, during the early 1990s when Nawaz Sharif’s government started a dialogue on the building of the Kalabagh Dam, the debate was rejected by all representatives of the smaller provinces. In the assemblies of the smaller provinces (KP, Sindh and Balochistan), resolutions were unanimously passed against the building of the Kalabagh Dam.

Now, the judiciary ignores the lack of confidence of the smaller provinces in the federal government and its continuous support for Punjab province. The honourable judge ignores the opinions of international experts. The courts issued a statement that is a clear contempt of the voices of the smaller provinces, proved through the unanimous resolutions from the provincial assemblies. In return, the courts should close their ears and eyes; otherwise, they might also face some contemptuous statements from the neglected people. Fallacious decisions might work better to break hearts than building dams.

The writer is a former research consultant on Afghanistan and is currently running a research and consulting firm, Kaar Pohan, in Peshawar. He can be reached at kaarpohan@gmail.com